Match preview - Hereford FC vs Guiseley FC

With spring finally deciding to start properly after having a brief practice for a week in February before going back into hibernation, Hereford FC get back into action tomorrow, hosting Guiseley at Edgar Street, kick off 3pm. The only way this one's off is if the Blackfriars End does the decent thing and at last collapses, causing tremors in the Waitrose veg aisle, disrupting middle-class life, and that's perhaps the only eventuality that'll make the council sit up and take notice of us dirty unwashed people over the road. 

With the matches against Brackley and Alfreton postponed due to the recent wet and windy conditions across the country, the Bulls have had an enforced ‘winterval’, giving the players a chance to rest and the coaching team the opportunity to take stock, and to bring in Coventry right back Jak Hickman on an initial one-month loan as a replacement for departed Jimmy Oates.

Tomorrow’s match offers a golden opportunity to build on the welcome victory last time out against Darlington with another three points, and thus move ever closer to safety. However, the club’s win record against fellow strugglers this season is singularly abysmal, so despite Guiseley being not very good at all, without a win in twelve and having lost their last three, this will be no foregone conclusion, particularly if the Hereford defence switches off as it did at times in the first half against Darlington. Recent results, talked up in some quarters as an oh-so-impressive unbeaten run, are, when you look at them properly, largely pretty modest. This includes a 1-1 draw with Guiseley in January.

Following relegation from the National League last season, the Lions are in danger of going down again, just three points clear of FCUM, but with a much better goal difference than the bottom three. They lie six points behind the Bulls.

Tomorrow's teams have almost identical goals scored and conceded records, which doesn't exactly point to a devil-may-care end-to-end ding-dong goalfest, but you never know - the new right back may have an eye for goal.

Presumably that right back will start tomorrow, especially as the other obvious candidate, Keiran Thomas, is suspended for two matches after collecting ten yellow cards in what has otherwise been a very successful debut season. Another change to the starting line-up should see Cardiff loanee James Waite come in after his three-match suspension. Having looked like a proper threat at this level in his brief time on the pitch for the Bulls so far, his return will be eagerly anticipated by supporters.

In midfield, Eliot Richards, Tommy O’Sullivan and Tom Owen Evans have contributed significantly to much of what the team has done well recently, so James Wesolowski may again have to start on the bench as he bids to complete his comeback from long-term injury. Kyle Finn's performance when coming on against Darlington to replace James Roberts should bring him into contention to complete that four-man midfield. If Finn is preferred to Wesolowski, there wouldn't be a great deal of bite in the middle of the park, and it could leave the defence exposed, but it would offer a front six with plenty of potential going forward. Roberts meanwhile, with the best will in the world, increasingly looks like he isn't at the right club if that club aspires to be where it claims to want to be.

Guiseley have got plenty to play for, although arguably would take a draw to arrest that losing run, but one would hope that the home side, back to full strength both on the pitch and on the bench, Keyon Reffell excepted, should have enough to win this one comfortably. Some much-needed momentum can then be taken into Tuesday’s tough assignment against Brackley.

COYW